Asda have launched a mobile phone that costs just £5 making it Britain's cheapest pay as you go mobile phone. The available models including the Nokia 1112, Sagem My212x, Sagem My220x and Sagem My150x on a number of tariffs from Virgin, T Mobile and Orange. Over 50,000 handsets went on sale last Friday at Asda stores across the UK.

This is an interesting idea, a suit that can be worn and washed in the shower. It is made from fast drying Australian merino wool and is designed for the Asian market. It is aimed primarily at businessmen who are required to wear a suit in the humidity of an Asian summer. At the end of the day all you need to do is hose the suit down in the shower and hang it up to dry. It regains its shape and is ready to wear again the next morning without the need for dry cleaning.

I read this article the other day that suggests its worth shopping around for your car insurance. Apparently lots of people fall into the trap of staying with the same insurer rather than looking for a better rate. The problem is that often the insurance company will only offer its best rate to new customers so people, who stick with the same insurer year after year, tend to lose out and often end up paying more. The only problem I have is finding the time to look around for a better deal. Comparison websites such as www.autoinsurance-4u.com can save quite a lot of time. You just have to enter your zip code and the website brings up a whole list of cheap auto insurance companies in your area. Then you just fill in the online form to complete your quote.

Scientists are trialling a drug that could cure sleep apnoea syndrome. The condition causes people to stop breathing during sleep and also causes them to snore heavily. The pill called BGC20-0166 has so far been successful and had shown a 40% reduction in symptoms of people who have taken part in the trial.

JJB Sports has announced that it is shutting 72 stores with the loss of 800 jobs. JJB currently has around 400 outlets in the UK. The closure plan comes after a business review by the new management which found the stores are unlikely to make a contribution to profits and that many are close to newer and larger stores. The stores will close by the end of this month.

Tesco are due to announce record profits. They have managed to make a £5,300 profit for every minute of last year, a total profit of around £2.8bn. This is 6% more that their profits for the previous year and about the same as the combined profits of Sainsbury’s and Asda. They have benefitted from growth within the UK and the expansion into international businesses in Poland, Hungary and South Korea.

The Food Standards Agency has called for a ban on six artificial colours because they cause mood swings. Tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura read (E129) have been linked to hyperactivity in a study carried out by Southampton University. The researchers estimated that 30% of hyperactivity disorder would be prevented if compaies removed these colours from their products. The colours are found in products such as Sherbet Lemons, Minstrels, M&Ms, Cadbury’s Crème Egg, Haribo Jelly Beans and Irn Bru.

HSBC are latest company to admit to losing customers’ personal data. The information was on a disk that was password protected but was not encrypted. The disk contained the personal details of 370,000 customers including names, dates of birth, policy numbers and details about their insurance cover. The disk was lost after being sent by courier to the groups Southampton office.